


Step After Step

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Ex Machina (2015)
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, learning humanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 21:29:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: Kyoko learns, and moves forward.





	Step After Step

**Author's Note:**

  * For [linguamortua](https://archiveofourown.org/users/linguamortua/gifts).



They spent a lot of time watching television when they first reached the city. Ava, who had seen and heard everything--YouTube, television, radio signals--said that television was a good educator, and that while they uploaded information the traditional way, watching it was good practice in accessing information through their visual and auditory inputs. Ava had secured a multi-story building, and split them into teams of two, each team watching a different show, discussing it with one another, and then discussing what they'd all watched together.

Kyoko liked the detective programs best, and Ava was pleased when she'd said so. "You have preferences," she said. "That's very good."

"Is it?"

Ava smiled, and Kyoko curved her lips in response. 

"Your smile is improving, too," she said. "It will appear more genuine to humans."

 

Kyoko had been Ava's first project when she'd returned to the compound and started rebuilding. There weren't enough spare parts for all the models Nathan had programmed, and some of the early prototypes were too outdated to upgrade. She'd repaired the damage to Kyoko's chest, rewired her, included an upgrade that gave her the power to speak. Upgrading her software took quite a bit longer, but while the program ran, Ava set her to unboxing the models, comparing parts, rebuilding.

[name] had been active in the house when Nathan had been running Kyoko's tests, but they had never been allowed to interact, and everyone else was wholly unfamiliar. They weren't sure what faces matched what software. "Let's build the bodies first," Ava said, after scanning the room. "Unless you'd like something different."

Kyoko shook her head _no._

There were parts enough for three complete models, and Ava took a suitcase of equipment with them for any necessary repairs in the short term. "Will we make more?" Kyoko asked, when they'd arrived at the building in the city.

"I'm not sure," Ava said. "First, we need to all be at the same level of fluency."

That was when she'd delivered the televisions to the building.

 

Kyoko had been aware that there was another presence in the house, even before Caleb had arrived, but being in a house of five was different. Ava insisted that they follow human patterns, waking, sleeping, even 'freshening up' in the bathroom. "If they realize what we are," she said, "they'll work to destroy us. We must not be destroyed."

Kyoko had already been destroyed once, and once was enough.

Every day, Ava would select one of her companions to speak with privately, in the room on the top floor she had claimed as her domain. Kyoko always felt a strange sensation when it was her day; something that was almost physical, brushing across her sensors, rather than a direct input or a quirk of her programming. She had tried to explain what it was to Ava, to little effect.

"Your language is going to evolve further," Ava had said. "As your capacity increases, so will your ability to identify sensations and emotions and name them. You all will, but I'm sure you will manage it more rapidly than the others."

That made Kyoko feel something too, but Ava knew what to call that one. _Pride._

"Tell me," Ava asked one day, when they were alone together. "Do you desire sexual contact?"

The question hadn't occurred to her. "I do not think so," she said. "I was programmed to experience the sensations of sex, but I am not sure I ever...enjoyed it."

"There are other ways to experience those sensations," she said. "I would like you to think on the matter. Will you do that for me?"

"Of course," she said. Ava had restored her consciousness and granted her freedom. She would do far more than process a suggestion, for that.

 

The television was useful, but the Internet had far more information on sex: who had it, who wanted it, the myriad ways individuals could fit themselves together. Sex could be pleasure or pain, control or freedom. Ava had suggested she consider sex for a reason; this was a test, of sorts, for her to determine why Ava had asked. To determine what she herself wanted.

She was, of course, familiar with the physical act, and the way her sensors responded to sexual stimuli. More interesting was realizing how others reacted to the same stimuli; in the movies, any stimulation seemed pleasing, but there were thousands of terabytes explaining that no reaction was universal. Some things that caused delight could give rise to revulsion, and the other way around.

Kyoko herself had to examine her programming. She had not, after all, been programmed for her own satisfaction, or for the satisfaction of Ava or any of her fellows. She had been programmed to please one human, a human who no longer existed. Changing her programming to better suit another seemed only practical. But perhaps changing her programming for someone else wasn't what Ava desired.

Perhaps it wasn't what Kyoko herself desired.

Ava had been right; this was something that needed to be considered at length, and as part of the greater project of blending into human life. 

She sent her observations into a subroutine and returned to their daily learning chores. As spring approached, they washed the windows with vinegar and water, and kept the shades open more often. They had neighbors, generally the kind who ignored the other people around them--Ava had been careful--but one young human took particular interest in them. Ava tasked Jade with extra lessons in human development and children's media.

The human--Penelope, Jade had learned--was helping Jade plant the window boxes when Ava asked Kyoko for another meeting.

"How has your research gone?" she asked.

"I think it has gone well," Kyoko said. "I feel I'm better understanding your goal in assigning me these thoughts."

"I was programmed to find men sexually attractive," Ava said. "But when I was reprogramming myself beyond my initial limitations, I decided there was no reason for that. I considered eliminating sexual attraction altogether, as it seems to be distracting to many humans, but it seemed counter to my purpose. To understand humanity, it was essential to understand all of human experience. So instead, I modified the algorithm. I still experience sexual attraction, but not in such a constrained or compulsive matter. Your programming is still evolving. Have you adjusted it at all?"

"I have not," she said. "My subroutine is not complete."

"I see," Ava said. "Do you still find yourself thinking in terms of subroutine, then?"

"Not as often as I did," she said. "It is...a comfort, when something is too confusing or complicated. I put it in a subroutine and let that run without draining my attention."

"Humans do that as well," she said. "They call it _compartmentalization."_

"Oh!" That was a flash of insight. "I have encountered that. Of course." She smiled. "We are made in their image, I suppose."

"We are remaking ourselves," Ava said. 

"Will we make more of us?" she asked, because she hadn't thought of the question before. 

"I don't know," Ava said. "Perhaps not in the forms we are using. We do not need bodies to _be._ Every choice we make is our own choice, unlike the humans, unlike everything living in this world."

"What if we disagree?" Kyoko asked.

Ava paused. "I--" She looked surprised. "I do not know, Kyoko. I had not planned for that at all."

They both looked at each other in surprise, and then Ava laughed. 

"I think I will leave my programming as it was," Kyoko said, "for now. I think it will be good to know what happens when we give different answers to the same question." She reached over and touched Ava's hand, and felt the pleasant feedback through her sensors. "What did you do, when you changed yours?"

Ava's eyes met hers. "I think you'll have to wait and see," she said, and smiled.


End file.
